David Drake - The Mirror of Worlds

Garric said. "Is that correct, Master Leel?" "Milord said he would, didn't he?" the guard growled. He didn't look up to meet Garric's eye.

"Anyway, why not? We don't have any cargo since the grubbies won't go out to the islands any more. We may as well carry you and your beasts." "All right, let's go across," Garric said. He felt a grudging sympathy for Leel, who obviously didn't trust his master but who was unwilling to lie for him. "If the fog covers the moon again, we're going to have to feel our way." Shin gave a rippling, golden chuckle and made a motion with his hands. A ball of azure wizardlight swelled to the size of a cantaloupe just ahead of him. It was bright enough to show the seams between the blocks of asphalt. The aegipan danced onto the causeway, singing, "He who would valiant be, 'gainst all disaster…" Kore followed at a measured pace. Her claws and the aegipan's hooves clicked on pebbles in the causeway's surface. Garric glanced over his shoulder. For a brief time he could see Leel's torch as a dull red spark moving west across the neck of land, but then the mist swept in at full thickness and swallowed everything beyond the glow of Shin's ball of light. "-and follow the Master," the aegipan sang, then broke off into fresh laughter. The night was thick but not silent. The asphalt surface groaned, and occasionally a bubble plopped hollowly. Such humid warmth made Garric expect frogs and insects, but nothing living made a sound. Kore paced forward easily. They were silent for some time. "Can either of you see the palace?" Garric said at last. "As best I can judge, we should be getting close to-" The air grew noticeably cooler, though Garric didn't feel the breeze that must've driven the change. The sky was clear; stars jabbed down around a moon which was within an hour of zenith. The black bulk of Lord Holm's palace rose a few double paces ahead. The aegipan made another gesture with his delicate hands, rather like crumpling parchment into a ball and throwing it away; the globe of wizardlight vanished. Useful as the illumination had been, it gave objects an unclean cast when combined with natural moonlight. Mind, the palace was sufficiently unclean even in the moon's pale purity. Like the causeway, it was constructed of blocks sawn from the lake's surface. That they'd been carefully dressed and carved with pilasters and crude swags made the effect even more grotesque. Kore knelt without being told to so that Garric could dismount. The windows were tall with pointed arches; the glass set into the openings in leaded frames may've been colored, but Garric couldn't be sure in this light. The double door was of heavy oak and iron-strapped, but both valves stood open. Torches like the one Leel had carried waited in sconces to either side of the recessed doorway, ready to be lighted. Shin lifted one, stared at it critically, and made a pass over the ball of tar with his cupped left hand. A red spark flashed and the tar began to burn with deep, smoky flames. Shin offered Garric the butt of the torch, adding with a curl of his tongue, "Or would you prefer to treat me as your servant, Prince Garric? Shall I bear the torch for you?" "You're not my servant," Garric said, taking the torch. He extended his arm slightly so that the acrid fumes were downwind of all of them. "And I'm capable of carrying this." "So long as you keep it in your left hand," said Carus. He chuckled. "I wouldn't like this place even if we hadn't been told we were being sent because nobody else had the balls to come."

"Foul though I find the odor of this hell-pit…," said the ogre.

She bent almost double to step through the doorway. "I would know if there were anything alive inside. There is not." "I would find that more reassuring," said the aegipan as he followed, "if I thought the living were the only or even the greatest danger we might face here."

Garric paused in the doorway to peer at a blotch in the carved molding; it was the discolored knuckle of a bone from an ox or something even bigger. Of course animals-and no doubt men-would've fallen into the tar over the centuries that the asphalt lake had existed. The larger the beast, the more likely that its weight would break through the crust, especially if a skin of rainwater hid it. He walked into the building. There was no anteroom, just a hall which rose to the height of three normal stories. The domed roof had a large oculus in the center. Moonlight streamed through that round window and painted the west side of the hall. Tapestries showing horsemen hunting strange beasts across a mountainous landscape covered the bitumen wall; it would otherwise have absorbed the light almost completely.

Reflection from the fabric of silk with metal threads illuminated the great room better than chandeliers did the feasting hall of the palace at Valles. That wouldn't help during the new moon, of course. There were benches around both sidewalls and a high wooden throne with gilt-or perhaps golden-dragon finials at the end opposite the entrance. Garric would've expected a clear space in the center of the hall. Petitioners would stand there during audiences and servants would set up trestle tables for feasts. Instead, a massive black sarcophagus stood directly under the oculus. Shin and Kore stood at either end of the sarcophagus, staring at it hostilely. Garric joined them, bringing the torch close to get a better view of the ornate reliefs. "Is it ebony?" he asked, but he was already reaching out to answer his own question. He tapped the lid with his knuckles. "It's stone," he said in surprise. "It must be jet. It's hard enough to take delicate carvings, at any rate. These are very good." As Garric eyed the reliefs more carefully, he realized their strangeness as well as the carver's skill. There were two separate bands on the lid, arranged so that the figures' feet were toward the door. In the center of the upper register stood a skeletally thin human figure, probably a man, wearing long robes. His arms were spread to either side in blessing.

Though the features were stylized and in any case very small-the face was the size of the end of a man's thumb-Garric thought he detected a similarity to Lord Holm. The lower register was covered with a profusion of animals, each one identifiably distinct from its many fellows. The beasts fell into at least a dozen different species, each of them similar to an animal which Garric had seen or at least read descriptions of-but none really identical to anything familiar. The largest of the carved animals were the elephants. These had unusually long, curving tusks, but that could be explained as artistic license.

The hump of fat on the beasts' shoulders, though, and the shaggy hair that covered their bodies were like nothing Garric had seen or heard of. Likewise the lions seemed ordinary enough until you noticed the curved canines projecting beneath the lower jaw, the antelopes had four horns rather than two, and the wolves' heads seemed too massive for even their unusually robust bodies. The circling vultures were far too big also, assuming the elephants and other animals weren't pygmy versions of their present relatives. "It's an odd place for Lord Holm to keep his father's coffin, wouldn't you think?" said the ogre, who must've noticed the same resemblance that Garric thought he saw. "Of course, one never knows what humans will decide to do. I blame it on their skulls being so small that their brains get squeezed." "It's not Holm's father," said the aegipan. "At least it's not his father unless Holm is many thousands of years old. Ten thousand at least, I would judge." Garric stepped back and frowned. "Judge how?" he said. Shin touched the hilt of the dagger Garric had found in the peel tower and said, "May I borrow this?" "Yes," said Garric. "Of course." Shin drew the dagger and slid its point down the margin of the lid. Garric winced to see the blade mistreated, though on consideration he realized that jet wasn't hard enough to dull good steel. "Do you see how bright the edges of the scratch are?" the aegipan said, gesturing with one hand while the other replaced the dagger in Garric's sheath.